Most children are possessed of the innate desire to climb and explore new settings. Modular playgrounds have been created to satisfy this desire in children, while retaining that degree of safety necessary to reassure their guardians. They typically consist of modular blocks, compartments and passageways attached together to form a series of maze-like vertical columns and horizontal decks. These playgrounds are typically surrounded by netting, or the like, to provide visual access to the interior of structure. Individual passageways and compartments are typically provided with portholes to provide visual access even in those closed in areas. This eases the fears of children "lost" in the maze and allows guardians to keep their charges in sight at all times.
One of the exciting features of these heretofore known systems is that they are constructed on a multi-level basis with a series of interconnecting passageways, thus allowing the playing children access to higher vistas in a much safer setting than a standard slide or metal jungle-gym. These passageways are typically cylindrical in shape, having no sharp edges to reduce injuries. However, providing these new vistas safely is an on-going goal that has proved to be difficult to accomplish in a manner allowing for the mass production of interchangeable and interconnectable components. Further, apparatus designed to connect such playground passageways at various angles and configurations to provide a maze like structure in a safe efficient manner has not heretofore been available.
The obvious solution would be to provide a separate corner piece for each type of corner that is needed. This has the effect of increasing design and implementation costs to a level that severally limits the range of corner pieces, and thus playground layouts, that are available for use. Several systems have solved this problem by using a sphere or cube, or other multi-sided structure fitted with access ports on each face. The designer then simply closes off the ports not needed in each specific implementation. This structure, while providing a single standard junction box, has unnecessary cost associated with it in terms of space consumed and material required to close off unused ports. Further, the outside appearance of these cubes or spheres is typically unattractive.
It would be advantageous to provide a standard junction apparatus which occupies a smaller foot print and is more economical to construct than individual specialized corner pieces. It would also be advantageous to provide a single playground module that is useful in a variety of situations and serves multiple functions. However, heretobefore known standard junction boxes have proven to be an ineffective solution in that their shape is not conducive to integration in a modular system. Further, the cost in time and parts required to construct such known boxes is excessively high for the function derived from them. Specifically, they do not lend themselves to easy installation, modular utility or to producing an attractive playground unit.